new home owner -- new pool owner -- clear as MUD

[Andyman33]

I posted this on poolspaforum.com and was hoping for help asap so figured I'd do it here too...
I've been reading here for about 2 days now -- looking about how you are advising others to get the water straight and have made a few changes etc, but we are still with a cloudy pool (VERY) and I am hoping for some advice. First of all, the pool is 16k gallons inground fiberglass vinyl liner. It has a nature2 in addition to sand filter (although the nature2 is not active at this point). The pool was at an unoccupied house in Wisconsin and wasn't first opened until friday of 4th of july weekend...so we are definitely behind the 8-ball. I already have ordered the taylor 2006 testing kit but for now I have test strips to test free chlorine and hth's 6 way kit. When we got to the house, there was no chlorine in the system (not sure how long but I do know they used the pool for about a week from july 4-11 or so)...that is what I'm starting with.
Initially when tested ph 8, TC 0, TA 200, CYA 0. I have strips and FC was also zero on that.
I since have added acid trying to get the TA down(with aeration) as well as the pH, and also have added chlorine (both the tabs in my feeder and 4 bottles of shock (aka sodium hypochlorite 10%) and TA is now 180 ph 7.5, TC 4, CYA undetectable but the strips still show FC zero. SO....I have also been using poolcalculator.com and I also learned that unscented bleach was just as good but its only 6%...told me to add 330 mL's of 6% hypochlorite...which I have done. So now the question is this --- do I add CYA so that the chlorine stays around (it is like 96 degrees all this week)? Do I work on the TA? Do I give it 48 hours with this chlorine that I just put in? Or do I pump out a bunch and put in a bunch of "fresh"(our city softens the water for us, will that matter?)
Thanks for everything -- just want a CLEAR pool Can't even barely see the last step!!!

Or looking at some of the timelines on here...do I check my pool every hour and keep adding bleach until I finally get a reading on the FC and fight the crap out of whatever is eating my chlorine up -- is there a danger to my system of using too much bleach (so long as the FC doesnt' go too crazy high) goal of 12-15.

Thanks

[Watermom]

Hi Andy and welcome to the Pool Forum. Until your kit arrives, (good decision to order that by the way) -- use your 6-way kit, but not the test strips. They are useless.

Until you get some CYA (stabilizer) in there, you're gonna have to add bleach 2 or 3 times per day. We recommend a CYA of 40-50 for most pools. You have a choice to make. You can just go ahead and add the CYA separately to get to 40-50 and be done with it or you can add enough separately to get to around 25 and then use your feeder for awhile and then stop doing so when you get to 40-50. (Clarify for me --- by feeder do you mean chlorinator and not just floaters?) Let us know which you prefer to do and we'll advise you from there.

Either way, for the first week or so, you'll need to test 2 or 3 times a day, and each time add enough bleach to take the chlorine back up to around 6. For reference, in your pool each quart of 6% bleach will add just about 1ppm of chlorine.

Here are some links for you to read:
Using Muriatic Acid Safely
Lowering Alkalinity Step-by-Step

Also, if you haven't already done so, please read the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below.

One last thing for now. To make it easier for us to help, if people will create a signature line with their pool specs, it keeps us from having to reread through posts to find out basic information. You can create a signature by clicking on 'settings' in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage. In your sig, please put type of pool, volume, type of filter, size of pump, whether or not you have a SWCG or any water features and the fact that you do or do not have a K-2006. Thanks!

Hope this helps. Let us know which of the two options you want to do for adding your CYA.

[Andyman33]

added my signature...
also, should I put the CYA in the chlorine feeder or in a sock? It is like a powdered granular type is all that i could fine?

[Watermom]

Do NOT put the CYA in the feeder. Put it in an old sock and hang it in front of your return jet. Give it a squeeze every now and then and it will help it dissolve faster. The powdered granular type is what you are looking for as long as the ingredients say cyanuric or isocyanuric acid. Are you going to add enough to take it up to 40 or only to about 25 and let your feeder take it the rest of the way? (Once your CYA hits 50, you don't want to use your feeder any more or else your CYA will continue to climb and you really don't want it any higher that that.

(Thanks for making the sig.)

[Andyman33]

I can't see my signature (or yours for that matter). As for the CYA -- I'll probably just get it to 25 for now and then let the trichloro that I already purchased bring it up slowly the rest of the way (ok plan?)
As for today -- I'm off and plan to bleach the crap out of this...
one more thing -- my filter right now has pressure at 25. What do I do? Backwash? how much water do I backwash out? Do I need a hose to keep it off my lawn to prevent the bleach from destroying it? A little advice for this would also be greatly helpful!! Thanks so much!

cya now in a sock in the feeder (put in 9 oz) this time -- calls for 33 oz total so will slowly add...

[Watermom]

To see sigs, I think you have to go back to the user control panel somewhere in the settings and enable it. I don't have time to look for it right now. See if you can find it and if not let me know and I'll look for it a little later.

CYA to 25 and then use feeder til it hits 50 is fine.

Backwash your filter. Always turn the pump off before you move the handle on the multiport. First move it to backwash. Watch the discharged water and backwash until the discharge (not the little sight glass) looks clean. Usually takes mine about 1.5 minutes or so, maybe a little less. Turn pump back off, put handle on rinse for about 15 seconds. Turn pump back off and put it back on filter. Note the clean pressure. That will be important to note because the way you tell it is time to backwash is whenever the pressure rises 5-10psi over the clean filter pressure. I have always backwashed right onto my lawn for years and it has never hurt it at all.

EDIT -- You don't have to add the CYA so slowly or it will take a long time to get it to register and during that time, you'll have trouble keeping chlorine in the pool. Go ahead and add it all to the sock. 9 oz. is only going to give you about 5ppm. It's going to take a little over 3 lbs. to add 25ppm. So, you need more than 33-oz.
Out the door for a bit to run some errands but I'll check back in on you later this afternoon.

[Andyman33]

ok added more cya to sock...no more than 18 ounces will fit though so added that much and will add more as it dissolves into the water. Just rechecked pool again -- pH 7.8, TC about 4 (tough with the yellow color matching) and Free chlorine on stick 0 (again i have dip sticks only to see if I can get ANY free chlorine in this pool!)
also, when should I backwash filter? and can i do it into grass or will chlorine kill it?

[Phillbo]

Don't backwash while adding the CYA.. You'll just flush it out .. You need to wait a week or so after adding CYA before you backwash.

If you just put the sock in , you may want to remove it (and add more ) , backwash and then start adding CYA.

[Watermom]

With the CYA in a sock that is hanging in front of a return, backwashing won't flush it out.

Andy -- If your pressure is 25, you need to backwash. Please reread my post #6 above for more about that.

Did you find how to enable things so you can see signatures?

[Andyman33]

signatures are there...so is the last step to get in my pool and even a little of the bottom is showing!!! woohoo!! I have been checking every hour to two and finally getting some free chlorine in there!! TC is 5.0 (I need to dilute 1/2 strength with distilled that I bought on next check to see if it is really more like 10 or something even higher). However the strips (i know not ideal) are showing just less than 5.0 so I think its gotta be around there...and the FREE chlorine finally gave some readings!!! 3-4 range!!! woohoo...gonna go out to dinner and retest it all when I get back and probably add even more chlorine in...why the huge demand? that bad from the algae bloom that must have developed?
also I backwashed until it was clear (well as clear as the pool at least ) then did rinse and restarted filter (after cleaning skimmer basket in the pump as it was really dirty)...readings still at 25 pressure. Does that mean sand is gunked up from previous owner having a pool service and putting god knows what in...there was quite a bit of pool store stuff on the shelves ...do you think I need new sand? I'll do a search on how to do it later.
Thanks!